Canada Is One Of The Most 'Medically Free' Countries Worldwide & It Beat The US By A Lot
But Canada did not take the top spot. 🏥
Sick Kids Hospital in Toronto. Right: A sign for an emergency room.
One thing Canadians love to talk about is the fact that, here in the Great White North, we have universal health care.
While many people are super proud of Canada's health care system, not all countries have the same access to services like abortions, paid maternity leave and universal health care.
A new study has considered these factors, among others, and ranked the most "medically free" countries in the world – and it's Canada that takes the number three spot.
How does health care in Canada measure up?
According to a new study by health insurance provider William Russell, Canada is beaten only by European countries Switzerland and Luxembourg respectively when it comes to health care freedoms.
The results of the survey were garnered by looking at access to specific health freedoms across the world.
Some of the things considered were the legal drinking age, access to medicinal cannabis, the legality of abortion, access to universal health care, euthanasia laws and paid maternity leave.
Each country got a "health freedom score" based on how it measured up in these categories.
Canada earned 7.6 out of 10, while Switzerland and Luxembourg got 8.34 and 7.83 respectively.
Other highly-rated countries include Belgium and Croatia, as well as South Africa, the Netherlands and Australia.
Part of Canada's score comes from it performing well in every category. However, it did lose some points due to higher drinking and smoking ages compared to other countries.
How medically free is the U.S.A?
The real question is, how does Canada compare to our closest neighbour, the United States?
Well, it's safe to say we blew them out of the water on this metric.
The U.S. got a health freedom score of 2.88 out of 10, which leaves it all the way down in 50th place – which is the last slot on the study. This means it is considered the least medically free country in this study.
The report points out the country's lack of universal health care and guaranteed maternity leave as major factors in the low score.
Also listed among the worst-ranked countries were Indonesia, the Philippines, Japan and Latvia.
While Canada did well in this survey, Canadians' faith in their health care system has waned over the years.
Recent research has found that some Canadians don't have confidence in their health care system any more, while another report found that Canada's health care system is lagging when compared to other similar countries.
This article's cover image was used for illustrative purposes only.
- Canadians Are Less Confident In Their Health Care System Than ... ›
- Canada's Health Care System Was Ranked & It Didn't Score Well ... ›
- A TikToker Described The Difference In Health Care In Canada vs. The US & It's Too Real - Narcity ›
- A U.S. TikToker Shared The Cost Of Having Triplets In The Hospital & Canadians Are Shocked - Narcity ›
- A Redditor Says They're 'Angry & Envious' About A Difference Between Their Country & Canada - Narcity ›